Sunday, 21 August 2016

Dungeon Scum. More info.

This won't touch on the combat mechanics, those are tweaked from Starport Scum but not substantially changed (that would defeat the point of using the same engine).

What sort of content do you get?

Character creation
You will be able to roll up random characters or just scribble some keywords and use that.

There are no character classes but your rolls will suggest a "role" for the character to fill.

I opted against classes to allow people to make their own heroes more readily.

An example of a hero I just rolled is:
Grew up in a nomadic tribe, where they stumbled upon a dark secret that thrust them into the world.
They found their true calling as a ranger and their defining passion is Justice.

I could roll on the trait tables in the book, but I decide to give them "ARCHER (+1D to missiles), TRACKING and STEALTH.

They also have a Personality Trait, which will be HONEST.

Voila, ready to play.

Magic
There's a total of 6 different types of magic, each with 10 spells.
The magic schools all work in different ways and have different requirements to use.

For example, sorcerers must concentrate, severely limiting movement and their spells are generally one-use per encounter.

Miracle workers on the other hand can call on 3 miracles per encounter and
can do so while running around and even when injured.

There's also "Quest" spells which are used in roleplay scenarios to do things like send messages, travel overland or summon a riding steed.The Delve
If you want to use the random tables to set up a game, rather than run it as a conventional RPG, you use the Delve mechanics.

Set a number of encounters, typically 3. ROll that many times on the encounter table, which can result in battles, puzzles or traps.
These are designed to be solvable by pure dice rolls or item usage, but a Game master could substitute that for a puzzle the players will have to figure out.

When you've endured the required number, you will face off against the final encounter which concludes the Delve.

We do NOT roll up every single corridor as you map the dungeon, instead just focusing on the key moments of the delve, though again, you could roleplay it step by step if you liked.

Magic items
A lot of magic items are included as loot.
These are generally geared towards tabletop battles rather than roleplay scenarios, but there's a lot of clever bits (I think).

Fancy a sword that gets bonus dice against enemies that injured you?
A suit of armour that explodes when you die, taking them with you?
A cloak that prevents enemies from targeting you unless you are the closest one?

And a lot more.

Format
PDF as usual, expecting about a hundred pages, but may be a bit more or a bit less.
The initial version won't have any artwork internal, for ease of printing, though I may revisit that down the road.